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I Must Away, Love

Date 16 February 1979
Track ID 64653
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1979.22.B7

Original Tape ID

SA1979.022

Summary

A [truncated] night-visiting song in which a man approaches his true love's window and calls to her. When she realises the visitor is her lover, she admits him and they spend the night together. [The sound of the cockerel in the morning signals the time for him to leave.]

Item Notes

6 verses of 4 lines, song ends abruptly mid verse.

This is one of several very similar songs (cf. 'Here's a Health to All True Lovers' and 'I'm Often Drunk and Seldom Sober' (Roud Folksong Index no. 3135)), all seemingly related to Child 248 'The Grey Cock', which contains the supernatural element of a cockerel signalling the necessary departure of the lover before the break of day. The cock is retained in this and other versions, but without the supernatural context; in many versions, the night visitor is a ploughman, and the cock signals the beginning of his working day.

See:
Greig-Duncan vol. 4, pp. 130-131, no. 783
'Come Day Go Day' (R. Morton, 1973) pp. 5-6
'Traveller's Joy' (M. Yates, 2006) pp. 54-56
'Scotland Sings' (E. MacColl, 1953) pp. 65-66
'Bothy Songs & Ballads' (J. Ord, 1930) p. 89
'Come Gie's a Sang' (S. Douglas, 1995) pp. 36-37
'Book of Scottish Song' (A. Whitelaw, 1845) p. 427
'Singing Island' (E. MacColl & P. Seeger, 1960) p. 24
'Folksongs of Britain & Ireland' (P. Kennedy, 1975) p. 359
'Sam Henry's Songs of the People' (G. Huntington, 1990) pp. 343-344
'Folk-Song of the North-East' (G. Greig, K. Goldstein & A. Argo, 1963 reprint) art. CLXXVII

Recording Location

County - Aberdeenshire

Parish - Aberdeen

Village/Place - Aberdeen

Language

English

Genre

Song

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R179 GD783 C248

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good